US adoption revelations shock and irritate Chinese

China's adoption agency said it was "shocked and furious" about a report that revealed how US parents use the Internet to abandon unwanted children adopted from abroad, including China.

The Reuters investigation found parents used message boards and forums on Yahoo and Facebook to send unwanted children to virtual strangers with little or no government scrutiny, sometimes illegally.

"We are very shocked and furious," the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption said yesterday. "This is an irresponsible act."

The adoption center, commissioned by the government to govern overseas adoptions, said it "attaches great importance" to the report.

"As for the cases involving the adopted children from China, we are actively investigating and verifying and are awaiting a further understanding of the situation," it said.

The adoption agency said it is concerned about the lack of US government regulation that was revealed and would be holding talks with "relevant agencies" in the United States.

The agency requires families adopting Chinese children to provide feedback six times in the first five years. It now plans to demand feedback until the child turns 18.

In the report "The Child Exchange" 5,029 posts from a five-year period on a Yahoo message board were analyzed. On average, a child was advertised once a week in a practice called "re-homing." Most were aged from six to 14 and had been adopted from countries such as China, Russia, Ethiopia and Ukraine.